Page 20 of Older Cowboy

The next morning arrived, and Cody blasted into work with his nerves on overload. The second he saw Zeke, he barreled toward him. Zeke stood his ground with a sour expression on his face.

Well, now, that didn’t bode well, did it?

“Morning,” Cody greeted Zeke, tension tightening his neck and shoulders. “What do you have to tell me?”

“That you’ve opened this huge can of worms.”

Cody frowned. “How?”

“My wife is on the rampage now. She flew into action the minute I mentioned this with a plan somehow ready.”

“What type of plan?”

“She won’t tell me. All she’ll do is pat me on the chest and say, ‘Don’t worry. I have all this under control.’ I get the feeling that you might need to brace yourself.”

Cody swallowed. He got that feeling, too.

CHAPTERNINE

When Erika trekkedinto work to find more cupcakes, she felt a spasm of relief. Callie had been pestering her about how her date with Cody had gone, and despite providing her with a few key answers, the woman refused to let it go. She’d wanted detail after detail, and even after Erika gave them to her—an obvious mistake since she kept asking for more—Callie continued to bring it up over and over.

Then, when Erika cancelled her dinner plans with Cody, Callie must’ve detected something different about her posture or the look on her face. She’d asked her question after question until finally Erika had hissed at her.

“It’sover.”

Erika wished she could take back what she said the instant the words left her mouth. Mainly because Callie became relentless about the whys of it all. As if Erika herself even knew why she’d broken things off with Cody. She didn’t.

All she knew was that she imagined herself going on that date—knowing she honestly couldn’t refer to it as anything else—and something inside her heart ripped open. She didn’t know the reasons behind this, and frankly, she didn’t want to know.

It felt like some sort of unexplainable warning from on high, some instinct warning her off, and she wasn’t going to question it. Besides, she had a husband. Yes, he’d died, but that didn’t mean her link to him had been severed. Not totally. The truth of the matter was that she shouldn’t have ever agreed to go out with Cody to begin with. Not for coffee or anything else.

Once she saw the cupcakes, Erika wondered if it might be Julie or Tim’s birthday since she knew it wasn’t Callie’s. Either one would hopefully provide a distraction. The sooner she could shake her friend off her need to play matchmaker between her and Cody—or anyone else—the better.

Besides, she had her nurse practitioner certification to concentrate on, something that had become terribly difficult lately. For some reason she couldn’t define, her focus had been scattershot lately, something she’d never experienced to this level. Her thoughts kept going all over the place.

“Ooh, Erika, look what came, look what came. Cupcakes, and they’re for you,” Callie basically cheered like a cheerleader, and Erika scanned her from head to toe feeling wary. Her friend was so joyful and exuberant that suspicion sparked in her brain.

“How do you know they’re for me?”

“Because they had a card attached to them with your name. You, dear friend, have a secret admirer.”

What a bunch of malarkey.

“Callie, you have to knock this off.”

“Knock what off?” Her friend feigned ignorance and innocence, neither of which she pulled off.

“This performance of yours. A mysterious secret admirer. That’s ridiculous. Particularly when we both know who it’s from.”

“You mean a certain organic farmer who works with my husband?” Callie asked in a singsong voice. The RN’s anger hadn’t even phased her. Erika slammed her arms over her chest.

“Maybe.” But then it occurred to her that Cody knew how she felt about sugar, that he too liked to minimize it in his diet. “Unless you bought this yourself to pass off as his.” The accusation struck home because Callie’s pale complexion flushed as red as a tomato. “Youdidbuy these, didn’t you?”

Yet Callie straightened and threw her long bundle of blonde curls back from her face despite this.

“I’m sure Cody would have bought these himself if he’d known that you wanted them.”

“No, he wouldn’t. Because he knows that Idon’twant them. My husband died from diabetes. The last thing I’d ever do is besmirch Blake’s memory by gulping down the substance that ended up killing him.”

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